Overlord 2024. A Nice Little Show

The Overlord show is one of those shows I’ve never got to despite being only an hour and a half down the M40 but I finally relented under the badgering of my mate Mark at M & C Model Painting and I was glad I did.

Hosted by the Abingdon Wargames Club this is one of those ‘small and friendly’ shows that used to be the bedrock of the hobby, you wouldn’t travel massively out of your way to attend and it’s not graced by the big guns of the hobby but none the less it does what it does well.

Upon my arrival I was greeted warmly and directed into the labyrinthine corridors of the Abingdon & Witney College where demo games, participation games and traders were mixed together, which I’ll admit is my preference for a show. First stop was the Bring & Buy (nice to go to a show where this tradition is maintained) to see if I could continue my ongoing clear-out of stuff that isn’t being used, well organised, friendly and fair, just the job 😀

Some nice games were on display which were a bit of a distraction for a while, if I was to criticise I would say they did suffer from the old school problem of nothing to explain what was going on and ignoring the watching public like me. There were also a couple of participation games which some of the younger generation were distracted by.

Trade wise it was primarily the 2nd tier traders no insult intended. Warlord were present flying the flag on the big guns, then, Dave Lanchester, M & C, The Pit, Parkfield, Blotz, ROK, Athena, around 20 I would guess. How good a day they had I’ve no idea, footfall seemed fairly light although Mark said he had a good day and there were certainly people with bags of goodies making the rounds.

The photo has nothing to do with it (Mark’s commission work) but an important part of any show is the catering and in this instance it was rather good. The cafeteria outlet had a good range of fresh paninis and sandwiches, cakes, cold drinks and a nice cup of coffee, all at reasonable prices and served up by friendly staff. Also enough places to sit and eat & drink.

For myself it was mainly an mdf and paints day which easily blew what I cleared on the bring & buy 🤣 Blotz in particular did very well out of me when I convinced myself I needed some more 10mm desert buildings to go with the ones I’ve already got – at least I can knock them out pretty quickly 😉

So that was it, a pleasant run out, nice people, nice little show, I’ll go again.